DanS: Hu is now the man

[Urban Ranger]

Hu Jintao is the man to watch now, after the 16th People's Congress, now that Jiang, Li, and Zhu are going to retire from the scene.

I suspect though at least Jiang still has informal influences just like Deng did. BTW, supposely Hu was handpicked by Deng.

[Winston]

Great, now they've got an actual Butcher of the Tibetans in power.

[Urban Ranger]

Oh yeah? Who got killed when?

[Winston]

Well, the Chinese have been routinely killing and depraving Tibetans of basic rights since they occupied the country, which you know very well if you think about it, UR.

Hu cracked down hard on independence protesters in Lhasa during his tenure as party leader there in the late 80's. He was in supreme command and therefore directly responsible.

Looks good on his CV in the higher communist party circles though I suppose...

[Nubclear]

Airse! Ye who refuse to be slaves! With our very flesh and blood....

[Urban Ranger]

Sorry to correct you, even John King Fairbank concurred that Tibet should be considered an independent country.

Are you a supporter of capitalism? If so, then you support capitalists exploiting workers. Which makes all this talks of "basic rights" a wee bit hollow.

[Winston]

You're missing the point. Just be glad you're not in Tibet longing for independence and freedom from oppression, UR.

[Mr. President]

I have little sympathy for so-called "captive nations" like Tibet or East Timor. Why are they captives where Texas and Euxara are not?

[Winston]

Maybe it's because their culture is downtrotten and they're in many cases denied rights of work, education, child birth, free practice of religion, and political rights.

Oh yes, and to a varying extent depending on when and through which channels you happen to check on the situation, a number of them are butchered...

[Sarxis]

I kinda wish I lived in China- all that potential for a nation must be exciting times for them.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Sorry to correct you, even John King Fairbank concurred that Tibet should be considered an independent country.

I'm glad to see that you agree with the civilized partion of the world that Tibet should be free.

[Az]

I was rather amused by this sudden "change of hearts", and wanted to point it out myself, but then I saw your post... .

[Adam Smith]

THIS article from today's Washington Post suggests that Zeng Qinghong is a very shrewd rival behind the scenes. Comments?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Azazel
I was rather amused by this sudden "change of hearts", and wanted to point it out myself, but then I saw your post... .

If only he could convince the rest of his fellow countrymen.

[DanS]

OK, looks like this Congress was totally as expected, except maybe Jiang did slightly better in supporting his allies and did slightly worse in protecting his own position.

But do we really know much about this Hu? It sounds as if the Chinese people don't know much about him and we know even less about him. The Western press doesn't have much to say about him, so they continue to talk about his rivals (as in the Post article Adam Smith referenced).

Anyway, there was an article yesterday in The Post about Li Ruihuan being "retired".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51166-2002Nov13.html

That's a real shame. Seemed like he had a good idea of what to loose and what to hold bound (a tin ear seems to rule the roost most of the time). For instance, the following quote about Tianneman...

"The year before last, the college students created a disturbance. Was that a big deal? I think not. It was nothing but a few college students. The soldiers, the workers, and especially the 800 million peasants did not join in. So what's the fuss?"

Winston: I think the fact that Hu is a communist evil dirty bastard should be taken as a given. But I would still like to know about all of this stuff to try to get a feel for who this guy is and what his role is perceived to be (how he was groomed, etc.). Thanks for the data point.